Argentina to launch 400 MW mini RE auction next month

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Argentina’s Secretary of Renewable Energy, Sebastián Kind has announced on the occasion of a wind power conference that a new “mini-tender” for 400 MW of additional renewable energy power generation capacity will be launched next month.

The news was unexpected, as the government had previously said auctions under the RenovAr program were suspended for this, and very likely next, year. Compared to previous rounds, however, this new auction, named MiniRen Ronda 3, will have a reduced capacity and will be open to projects between 0.5 MW and 10 MW. They will be connected to the medium voltage grid.

According to the Argentinean Government, 350 MW will be assigned to PV and wind  technologies, with quotas by regions and provinces, while another 50 MW will be allocated to other minor renewable sources, such as small hydroelectric power (10 MW), biomass (25), biogas (10 MW), and landfill biogas (5 MW).

The Argentinean government will publish the auction's guidelines and rules in October, while project proposals will have to be submitted in March. Final results will be announced in May, with the signing of the PPAs scheduled for July.

In early August, Argentina's government said it did not intend to hold the planned fourth round of the Renovar program (Ronda 3) for large-scale renewable energy projects this year or in 2019. The reasons for the suspension were grid constraints, and difficult financing conditions, which may raise prices in the bidding round, the government explained.

Under the first three rounds of the RenovAr program, it approved 1.7 GW of solar projects. In the last of the three auctions, the lowest price for solar was US$40.4/MWh, with the highest and average prices $52.3/MWh and $43.5/MWh, respectively.

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